Pan vs. tube colour

Just because it’s called WATERCOLOUR it doesn’t mean you need tons of water on your brush. That’s why I prefer tube colours to pan colours. I love the creaminess of pigments straight out of the tube. I realize that pans may be easier to transport but in my opinion, by the time you get enough water into them to get diluted, the colours are washed out. I’m sure there are those who may disagree, and I think there are even some very well-known painters, Winslow Homer included, who used pans but I have always been sold on tubes. Yes, there may be some waste if you squeeze out too much paint but eventually you will get better at gauging how much you need. And if the leftover paint is not too dry, a quick spray of water will reconstitute it.

Juicy is an especially appropriate description here. Love how you painted the detail of the recently eaten grapes: the little green remains on the stems. Perfect shade of green too. I think I agree about tubes of colors. I am slowly switching over. Cheers on a very snowy day here in NH. Sue Anne

Gorgeous grapes! That must be so hard to represent well… so many similar, overlapping shapes with such similar colours… I imagine that it would be easy to end up with a mess of undefined green shapes. And speaking of “messy”… how do you paint with that palette and manage to produce clean colours when you want them?

Thanks Ross. The trick with the messy palette is that you have fresh paint in there. You clean your brush in between colours and just keep dipping into the fresh, juicy paint. I have other palettes but I keep coming back to this one. I have a plastic palette but this one is enamel and I just love the mixing surface. It’s just not the same on plastic…
If I was really rich I would buy one of these: http://www.watercolorpaintboxcompany.com/